Snuff Out the Stars
by ReadYourHeartOut
Summary: Human!AU Jack and Tooth (Ana) get mixed up in an age-old war between the forces of Light and Darkness. JackxTooth and fem!PitchxTooth. Some romance, plenty of angst, and some existential conflict. Third person, but mostly centered around Toothiana.


Chapter 1

"I don't know about this, Jack…"

"Aw, c'mon. Where's your sense of adventure?" He was laughing as always as he took her hand. With a reassuring smile, he went on, "Don't worry; I've got you." Ana felt her cheeks heat up slightly as she smiled back.

"Okay." She and her boyfriend had come to an _old_ abandoned house just outside of town "to explore," Jack had said. While the place was spooky and made her a little uneasy, she trusted Jack and wanted to go where he went. So, keeping his hand tightly clasped in hers, she followed him warily inside.

"What are we looking for?" she asked as her eyes wandered across the shadowy corners. It was dark out, so they were searching the house with a flashlight.

"Who knows," Jack responded, shining the light up to a crumbling set of stairs. "Man. Guess those aren't really safe, huh?"

"No way," Ana said firmly, tugging his hand to pull him away. Confined to the first floor, they continued to look around, but she was eager to leave as soon as possible. Something about the place gave her a bad feeling. They wandered through bedrooms and checked closets, but the most they found was a broken mirror here, a water-stained portrait there. Nothing life-changing. It was obvious that no one had lived there for decades.

"What a letdown," Jack said, all but giving up his dreams of a grand exploration. But as they started to leave, he tripped on the upturned edge of a rug, and his flashlight was thrown from his hand. "Ah, crap. Hang on." He dropped down and scanned the ground to locate their light source. It had rolled into a bedroom and under the still-standing frame of an old bed; as he reached to grab it, however, something unusual caught his eye. "Hey. Hey, look!" Shining the flashlight on the floor beneath the bed, he found a latch and a small trapdoor.

"What is it? Are you okay?" Ana asked as she knelt next to him.

"Yeah, I found something. Can you help me move this bed?"

"What? Why?"

"It's— There's a little door or something. C'mon, help me." For a moment, she hesitated. She was unsure about this, about what might be beyond that little door. But…Jack seemed so excited. She couldn't say no when he got like this. So she took one end of the bed while he took the other, and they moved it aside enough to reveal the trapdoor. Jack yanked on the handle, and it easily came open to reveal a flight of stairs. He seemed beside himself with delight.

"Ladies first," he offered, but his smile vanished as he saw the nervous fear on his girlfriend's face. "Hey. Don't worry." He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to plant a kiss in her dark hair. "We're just having a little fun. You know I won't let anything happy to you."

"Promise?" she mumbled softly.

"Promise," he answered with a grin. Trying to push away her apprehension, she returned a smile and started down the stairs ahead of him. He followed right behind her, his flashlight showing the way…but all that was to be seen was the stairs themselves. Down and down and down they went, far deeper than any normal basement should, until the ground finally leveled out.

"Where are we?" Ana mused, looking around and seeing nothing but a vast darkness. Her words echoed a bit to show how large the room was in which they stood. "Why would someone even build a place like this?"

"Maybe it leads somewhere cool," Jack suggested.

"Like China," she laughed.

"Or a superhero's secret underground lair!"

"**Or not.**" Both would-be explorers froze in their tracks as an icy shiver ran down their spines.

"Jack…was that you?" Ana breathed; she knew that Jack had a thing for playing tricks. If he was just trying to scare her…!

"No." He was just as freaked out as she was; the voice they'd heard had been deep and growling and…almost inhuman. Suddenly, their flashlight was snuffed out, and Jack dropped it to hold a trembling Ana behind his back in an effort to protect her. Her fingers clenched on his hoodie, and she whimpered in fear—then he was yanked away with a yelp, plucked from her grasp.

"Jack!" she screamed. All alone now, she could feel an icy chill of fear down her spine. "J-Jack, where are you? _Jack!_" Her panicked shouting shredded her throat, but she paid it no mind.

"**Will you be quiet? He's right here.**" That voice spoke again, and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, they began to give the voice a form. In the hazy grey of the shadows surrounding, there was a roiling mass of pure black with a very vaguely human shape. It had long arms and fingers, horns, two golden pinpricks for eyes. And there, held in its clawed hand, was a bright spot.

"Jack," she breathed.

"**Yes, you said that. Tell me: **_**why**_**, precisely, were you two intruding on my home, waving that accursed flashlight? As though your stomping about upstairs wasn't enough to wake me.**" Ana didn't answer right away. She could hardly believe what she was (barely) seeing.

"What…what are you?" she mumbled, almost by accident.

"**It's impolite to answer a question with another question**," the Dark thing hissed angrily.

"I-I'm sorry!" she amended. "We were exploring the house upstairs. We didn't mean… We were just curious…"

"**Tch. Humans and their curiosity. And I have to deal with you. That hardly seems fair**." The towering shadow began to shrink and change shape, taking the form of a tall and thin, grey-skinned woman with a seemingly-permanent look of disdain on her face. With one arm, she supported an unconscious Jack, holding him up around his shoulders. When she spoke this time, her voice sounded far less wicked; in fact, it was quite smooth. "You asked me a question; I'll answer it now. I've been called many things. Harbinger of Fear. Terror of the Heavens. My personal favorite is Nightmare Queen. My _name_ is Sable Black. Is there any particular reason you woke me?"

"No…" Nightmare Queen? What did that mean? Whatever it was, the two humans did _not_ belong in her lair.

"Then get out." She now turned her eyes toward Jack, and Ana's stomach clenched.

"Let him go, and we will."

"And just what position are you in to be making demands? You, who dared to trespass in my domain." She—Sable—shot the girl a glare. "You should be grateful I'm letting you leave at all. But this one is paying your exit fee."

"What do you mean?" Ana managed, frightened.

"He's going to stay with me and become my vessel of darkness. I haven't had one in quite some time, and I'm sure the world could use one about now."

"You can't…! I…" Ana's heart felt cold. This was a nightmare. She couldn't lose Jack! As she fell silent, Sable observed her, and then comprehension dawned on her face, lips curling into a knowing smirk.

"You _love_ him," she concluded easily. Ana didn't answer, but her blush spoke for her. The Nightmare Queen gave a chilling laugh. "I knew it! Oh, humans are fun. But that means I'll have to play the villain." She cleared her throat and quickly re-assumed her monstrous shadow form, holding Jack higher in the air.

"**So**," she growled, her voice rough once more. "**What will you do to keep him safe?**"

"What do you want?"

"**I've already said. I want a puppet, a servant. A minion to do my bidding in the world I dare not venture into.**"

"But if you were fine sleeping down here," Ana argued. "Why do you want to go out of your way to hurt _our_ world?" There was a silent pause that just _felt_ outraged.

"**What makes you think that **_**anything**_** in this world is yours?**" Sable rumbled, radiating dark fury. "**Your kind always want things that don't belong to them, laying claim regardless of the true owner's wishes. You disgust me… Get out. And I'm keeping this.**" She lifted Jack's chin, and he groaned softly. An unfamiliar fierceness welled up in Ana's chest, like a fire had been lit there, and it poured out in heated words.

"I won't let you!" she snapped. Another silence, and then a chuckle that made her skin crawl.

"**Ah, so you do have some spirit hiding behind that meek façade, after all**," Sable observed. "**I'll make you a deal; find me another vessel, and I'll give you this one back. But I warn you, I'll be holding onto him until I get another, and prolonged exposure to this kind of darkness can really change a person.**" Those golden eyes were surveying her thoughtfully, hungrily, and she quickly understood the _real_ deal she was being offered.

"You want me?" she asked softly, though it was only partially a question.

"**Clever girl.**" As Ana hesitated, she went on, "**What's the matter? Is he not worth it?**" Her long fingers brushed Jack's cheek, and Ana bristled once more.

"Don't you touch him!" she barked, making her throat sting once more. Another cold laugh.

"**Oh, I like you.**" Was that a good thing…? "**But I'm not a patient person. Make your choice, and do it quickly.**" In truth, it wasn't a choice at all. If it meant protecting Jack, she would do whatever she had to.

"Fine," she said firmly. "Let him go—safely!—and you can have me."

"**Done.**" Sable laid Jack to rest gently on the ground, but before Ana could check to make sure he was all right, the shadows had grabbed her and wrapped her up in a darkness so thick she couldn't see, couldn't move, could hardly even breathe.

_**Are you excited? I know I am.**_ She didn't _hear_ Sable's voice s much as she felt it, as she felt her own thoughts. _**It'll be a challenge, but I'm sure you'll serve me well.**_ Ana tried to respond sharply, but she soon realized that she couldn't speak. In fact, she couldn't move at all, and she started to panic inwardly (which is the only way one can panic when one is paralyzed). _**Calm down; you're like a frantic little bird. It's all part of the process. You'll be better when I'm done.**_

_ Better? Like you're 'better'? No, thanks…_ she thought loudly, and the sentiment that returned felt irritated.

_**I'd watch that impudence, were I you.**_ It seemed the Nightmare Queen suffered from drastic mood swings. _**If I grow tired of it, I may pluck that disrespectful tongue out of your mouth; you'd be surprised how little a servant of Darkness needs to speak.**_After that, Ana tried to keep her mind quieter. She found that her throat had stopped hurting. In fact, she couldn't really feel anything at all. It was just…so dark. Her senses had been shut off entirely, and she was left with only her thoughts.

Where was she anymore? How long had she been there? All perception of time had fled her, and it wasn't as though she could just check her watch. Did she even have a watch anymore? More importantly, did she even have a _wrist_ anymore? And even more important than that, was Jack all right? Her mind seemed to latch onto her fear for his safety and dwell on it for what felt like an eternity. Had Sable really kept her word and released him? Was he suffering the same sensory deprivation she was.

And what did this mean for her? Maybe she had acted rashly. She had never been given a detailed description of the…job she had just accepted. What if Sable asked her to hurt people? She had never thought of that. Well, she couldn't do it. There was no way; she just wasn't that kind of person.

Her frantic mind struggled to remain coherent, just _thinking_ and _thinking_ until she was exhausted from sheer mental exertion. She was growing accustomed to the numbness by now, so much as to say it was comfortable. Peaceful, even. Eventually, she stopped fighting and let herself black out.

…

"Ana? Can you hear me? Hey…" She heard Jack's voice and felt the warmth of his hand against her cheek. A waking smile curved her lips, and she sat up to greet him.

"Hey," she repeated, placing a kiss on his cheek. "I had the craziest dream! …what's wrong?" The pained look on his face had her worried.

"You…uh, you weren't dreaming, babe." Her chest clenched at those words.

"What do you mean?" He placed his hands on either side of her face and looked right into her eyes. In her peripheral vision, she could see that they were back in the old house they had been exploring to begin with.

"I need you to stay calm, okay?" This was _not_ helping.

"Wh…what did she do to me?" she was already starting to panic. Jack let out a sigh and sat back, glancing down toward her body. As her eyes turned downward, she let out a muffled cry of shock. Her body seemed to be covered in…feathers. Black feathers, dark blue, dark purple. Her _entire_ body was hidden by plumage, excluding her face and hands, which were now deathly pale, almost grey. Before she even had a moment to be appalled, the sun began to peak through a broken window. When the light touched her, she let out a harsh scream of pain, a discordant, birdlike sound, and scrambled away, literally burned by the sunlight. In her desperation to escape, she spread a pair of wings from her back (another "gift" from Sable) and shot straight up into the air. Her head collided with the ceiling, only causing her to emit another shriek of frustration.

And then her eyes fell on Jack. He was staring up at her from the ground, shocked, disbelieving…horrified. What must he think of her now? She had been turned into some kind of monster. Her eyes welled up with tears, and she managed to get herself up onto the landing of the second floor to hide from the sun…and from Jack.

"Ana," he called after her. "Come back down here. Please? Talk to me."

"No," she sobbed, hiding her face in her hands. "What have I done? I'm a freak…!"

"No, you aren't. Babe, you did this for me," he called insistently. "I wish you hadn't—" She let out another sob, and he hastily continued, "Because I would rather _I_ be the one to deal with it than you." A sound of heavily creaking wood punctuated his words; he was climbing those rickety stairs.

"Stay away," she called. "I don't want you to see me like this."

"But you're still you. You're still my girlfriend," he argued.

"You saw me. I'm…not even human anymore," she mourned, gazing down at her shimmering feathers and cursing Sable for putting them there.

"Of course you are. I can hardly even tell the difference," he joked.

"It's not funny, Jack."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." As he reached the top of the stairs, he gave her the same crooked smile he always had. "But I'm looking at you now, and all I see is the girl I love." Ana let out a soft breath and managed a weak smile of her own—but before she could speak, she was interrupted by another loud creak from the staircase. The wood snapped beneath Jack's feet, and she saw the fear in his eyes as he fell. Moving faster than she ever had before, she zipped forward and grabbed him around his chest, wings fluttering madly to keep them both airborne. Carefully avoiding the sunlight, she landed back on the first floor. Without the slightest hesitation, Jack embraced her feathery body and held her close.

"See?" he said gently. "Still you."

"But what am I going to do?" she asked, far less hopeful than he was. "I can't let people see me like this."

"We'll figure something out," he assured her. "Try not to worry." Even as she snuggled into his arms, though, her eyes were locked on the little trapdoor in the floor…and her mind dwelled on what was inside.

((Tooth's design for this story—after she's been made into a Fearling (basically), I mean—is based mostly on this picture: post/38293172009/livestream-over I mean, that's what comes to mind every time I picture her, but with paler skin and darker eyes. . Thanks to the artist for drawing such a beautiful Toothiana~))


End file.
